What are you Playing Now? Games = Life

[Malcador]

Got into a no-win state in Alternativa.  Pretty funny bug to lock you out of a room but make an item you must pick up be in that room.  Ridiculous.  Forgot how boring this game was too.

[melkathi]

Got the sand box dlc for Mechwarrior 5 and started a new game as a Merc in Steiner territory.

I suck at this game.

[Chilloutman]

how is MW5 now anyway? I am still waiting for sale on GoG to get it

[melkathi]

Better.

The AI seems to have improved. I was doing a siege breaker mission, assisting Peripheral Realms militia hold out against a Steiner assault and the only damage to a friendly building by my lance was when I strafed into a wall. 

Sandbox is a lot more interesting than the story campaign. For one, there are multiple starting locations that affect the makeup of your starting lance.

You can now find random loot in missions which you tag for salvage. It's nice because you may find some random thing you'd otherwise not consider. (I'll need to figure out how to put this large chem laser to good use).

 

So my opinion is that Heroes of the Inner Sphere DLC is pretty much a must.

 

Edited November 25, 2021 by melkathi

[Amentep]

22 hours ago, Keyrock said:

Edit: As an aside, if you haven't already then get the Knowledge of Tools miracle ASAP. Thank me later.

Got knowledge of tools - definitely one worth investing in.

[melkathi]

My starting lance is made up of a

Griffin GRF-1S, 55t carrying the standard 1 LLaser, 2 MLasers, 1 LRM5 and fitted with Jump Jets

2 Commandos, 25t each. One a COM-1B with it's 1 LLaser, 1 MLaser, 1 SRM2 - the other a COM-2D with 1 MLaser, 1 SRM4 and 1 SRM6

and for harassment a Locust, 20t LCT-1V with 1 MLaser and 2 Machine Guns.

I am taking easy missions for some quick cash, though I always negotiate for damage coverage, so I am losing money on that if I do really well, like in the latest mission, where the COM-1B and Locust never took any fire at all. I had 400.000 damage pay and my repair bill was 65.000. Had I instead asked for a flat increase of 200.000 of my payout, I would have covered my month's expenses through the difference.

The plan though to each around 5mil credits and some reputation to be able to negotiate for ~11 salvage shares. I need around that many shares to salvage a 30t mech. Currently I could go up to 9 shares if I didn't negotiate for any damage coverage or extra pay. But seeing how it may cost me an arm and a leg to repair and refit the salvaged mech, it will do me no good to salvage it if I can't use it.

 

Would have loved a chance to salvage the Panther I fought last mission. But at least it was a fun (as in laugh out loud) fight. We were defending a Steiner outpost from a Peripheral Realms attack (I don't care who pays the bills, as long as I am defending (it's my company's code of honour, we only take missions which do not have us attacking non combatants - so no attacking settlements - but we'll take any defense contract)). It was a newer defense map, so the base wasn't in the middle of the map, but actually on the edge, with opponents coming in from 3 sides.

My scanner momentarily picked up an enemy mech approaching, before the ridge on the south side of the outpost obscured it again. So I jogged my Griffin up the ridge where I expected the enemy pilot to try and cross. We reached the top of the ridge at the same time at the same point. So his 35t Panther suddenly had a 55t mech right in front of him. And instead of firing I just started punching him. Managed to get 3 good hits in before he could get any distance. At which time I blasted my lasers at his schlongpit (as Keyrock would call it). At that range not even I can miss.

Shortest mech fight I have had.

Of course after the beating it took and the tumble down the ridge, there wasn't anything left to salvage even if we had the shares.

[ShadySands]

Do enemies still spawn right next to you and does most combat still happen at really close range? I'd love to get back into the game but I absolutely hated it when it came out.

MechWarrior 1-4 raised me and I feel bad for hating on 5 so much.

[melkathi]

I haven't had enemies spawn right next to me. Well, they did once, but I got a warning of a troop ship coming in and the ship actually did swoop down and the enemy mechs were properly dropped. So that was cool. And my lance took up positions on the ridge to target the mechs the moment they dropped.

A lot of combat will be pretty close. That is what will happen if you fight Firestarters or mechs equipped with SRMs or SLasers etc. Heck, I try to take out lighter mechs' legs so I can close in and punch them.

But what I haven't seen happen anymore is the ridiculous circling that happened at release, where a mech would run up to you and then just circle around you until one of the two mechs blew up.

[Wormerine]

Picked up Sekiro on Steam sale.

Absolutely loving it so far. I wasn't sure how it will feel to play, looking at the gameplay videos, but like Dark Souls it plays much smoother then it looks. Love the setting. I am a sucker for stuff like this. 

Edited November 26, 2021 by Wormerine

[melkathi]

7 hours ago, ShadySands said:

Do enemies still spawn right next to you and does most combat still happen at really close range? I'd love to get back into the game but I absolutely hated it when it came out.

MechWarrior 1-4 raised me and I feel bad for hating on 5 so much.

 

And I just had a pirate Urban Mech spawn right next to me

Was taking out pirate satellite dishes and once done, a mech just appeared among the buildings. Now you could argue it was there all along powered down in a hangar and it took the pilot that long to get to the building and power up. But yeah...

[Lexx]

I mean, if it's an Urban Mech, it was just a joke anyways.

[melkathi]

Yeah, all it did was buy some time for the actual reinforcements to arrive. Those included a Vulcan, which is less of a joke

 

edit: mind you, when I get asked what kind of car I'd like, Urban Mech has been my answer for years. Probably just short enough so I could park it outside my apartment building and get right into the ****pit from my third floor balcony.

Edited November 26, 2021 by melkathi

[Malcador]

Sounds like I need to play this game just for the bugs.

[melkathi]

I'm happy they fixed the bug where mech's legs would get repaired if they changed direction.

[Humanoid]

I dunno, when I bump my leg against something I might shake it side-to-side a little and that seems to repair it.

[melkathi]

Pirates offering me a very profitable mission.

I don't usually work for pirates.

But they give me a 50% bonus on negotiated payouts...

[Malcador]

Alternativa's endless backtracking is fun.  Got to take a corpse's eyeball to deceive a retina scanner though.

[Keyrock]

I'm at the point now in SMT V where I'm starting to plan out future demons in advance, since I'm encountering demons with skills I'll still want later in the game.

Here's an example of what I mean. I have Jatayu, a mediocre force user. He has +4 force affinity, which is pretty good for this stage of the game, but he also has a really crappy magic stat, which offsets the pretty good affinity. However, he gets the force pleroma skill at lev 35, it's the last skill he learns. The pleroma skills are passives that increases effectiveness of that type of magic, much like affinity does. Once Jatayu learns that skill he becomes a somewhat good, but not great force user, not only because of his crappy magic stat, but also because  his only force attack is an AoE, which I'm not keen on (unless it's almighty).

When you fuse demons in MegaTen games they can inherit skills from their "parents". So the plan is to eventually fuse Muu Shuwuu using Jatuyu, passing force pleroma to her. She has a single target force skill (as well as AoE) and +3 affinity, which is lower than Jatuyu, but her magic stat is very high, which more than makes up for 1 less affinity (and gives her more MP to boot). Force pleroma on her turns her into a monstrous force damage dealer for that stage of the game, plus she can pass the skill along to a stronger force user later.

There's a whole recruiting & fusion game within a game in MegaTen. It's like SUPER ADVANCED Pokemon.

Edited November 27, 2021 by Keyrock

[melkathi]

Pro tip for MechWarrior 5: don't step on the loot.

[Bartimaeus]

21 hours ago, Wormerine said:

Picked up Sekiro on Steam sale.

Absolutely loving it so far. I wasn't sure how it will feel to play, looking at the gameplay videos, but like Dark Souls it plays much smoother then it looks. Love the setting. I am a sucker for stuff like this. 

The three people I personally know, as well as myself, that have played and beat Sekiro all had a "it's different from Dark Souls but it's great" reaction to the first 5-10 hours. May that continue to be true for you for the rest of the game...

[Majek]

Sekiro is just From Software finally succeeding in making a Ninja Gaiden game.  

[Malcador]

Never expect good voice acting for kids in games, but lordy Alternativa took the prize.  Almost near the end though.  Game's not awful, but paying $20 for this back in 2010 was not a good idea.

 

[majestic]

11 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

The three people I personally know, as well as myself, that have played and beat Sekiro all had a "it's different from Dark Souls but it's great" reaction to the first 5-10 hours. May that continue to be true for you for the rest of the game...

Wait, does that mean you stopped thinking it's great sometime after the first 10 hours?

There's one part of the game that I really HATRED'ed, but otherwise it was pretty good. Can't say I cared much for the High Monk nerf, but it was a bit overpowered...

[Bartimaeus]

13 minutes ago, majestic said:

Wait, does that mean you stopped thinking it's great sometime after the first 10 hours?

There's one part of the game that I really HATRED'ed, but otherwise it was pretty good. Can't say I cared much for the High Monk nerf, but it was a bit overpowered...

Correct. If the game had been half as long as it was, it probably would've left a much more positive final impression. A game that forces you into pretty much exactly one play-style the entire game from beginning to end with endless humanoid mini/bosses that all play out so similarly in a 40-50 hour-long game...the last ten hours or so of the game I just wanted it to be over because I couldn't stand the dull repetition any longer.

[majestic]

15 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Correct. If the game had been half as long as it was, it probably would've left a much more positive final impression. A game that forces you into pretty much exactly one play-style the entire game from beginning to end with endless humanoid mini/bosses that all play out so similarly in a 40-50 hour-long game...the last ten hours or so of the game I just wanted it to be over because I couldn't stand the dull repetition any longer.

I just checked my playtime, I'm at 90 hours, that includes grinding an awful lot to reach 100% achievement completion, three complete runthroughs of the game and me repeating certain areas in the game ad nauseam to see if I can stealth kill every enemy. I don't think From Software designed the game with single 50 hour playthroughs in mind, but I'm pretty sure I also spent around that time for the first one.

Thought the final chapter was a bit rushed and not at all properly set up, the combat arts were all mostly useless, the best one got knocked down because it trivialized (read: one-shot) the final boss - and that arguably fell under high risk, high reward, because a misstep and it doesn't look good for the player - and making the secret boss twice the size of your screen and the same color as the warning kanji that tell you what sort of dodge you need to perform was one hell of a terrible design decision.

Being stuck in one way to play the game didn't bother me, or at least not that much compared to all the customization options that are by far and large useless (although those two issues are interconnected, I suppose) but... I am also not an avid fan of Dark Souls. I liked, but not loved, the first one, and never played any of the others.

The raving reviews it got were certainly helped by an unhealthy From Software hero worship, but as far as games go, I liked it well enough and I played worse, for much longer.  

Edited November 28, 2021 by majestic